Could you work from home?

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I don't have qualifications for editing but I have had to do a lot of research for my own work prior to submitting to agents so I will look into getting a relevant qualification. A degree in English Lit isn't feasible but there may be something shorter and at least I'd end up using anything I learnt. I haven't gone that way previously because I didn't believe my English (the rules) was good enough but I've realised from editing my own work that I can tell when something is wrong, even when I don't know why, which cuts down enormously on the time of checking things. Do you have any idea on the qualification level writers would begin to pay for editing at? Would any pay for just the reading with a review? I am well read and would be able to research what agents/publishers were looking for ie length in different genres.

I am looking into selling on Folksy, it's worth a try and it might be fun.

I love that you’re looking into selling your work!

I’ve worked with two editors, neither of whom had English degrees. One started editing fan fics for friends for free to build up a good reputation, then switched over to charging for her work (brilliant editor, the best dang content editor ever, but she had family issues and had to quit). The other was a successful author who, along with providing a grammar edit, helps newbie authors navigate the Amazon publishing process (which is unwieldy, to say the least). There are several websites like fiverr where you can sign up to promote editing services. People offer grammar editing or content editing alone, or a combination of both, based on their experience and skills. (Content to them means looking for plotholes, character development, readability, POV consistency, pacing, unclear or unneeded passages, etc, while grammar is punctuation, typos, spacing...the time I named four different minor characters Mark in the same book...)

A lot of new writers on the Zon author site plead for someone to read their work and give general feedback, if you’re willing to start for low pay I really think that’s a viable untapped market. I can picture an ad for you to run: “Thinking about publishing your writing, but not really sure your story is ready? I can provide you kind, honest and helpful suggestions for improvement.”

Dang, she was such a good editor I can still hear her in my head... I just went back and inserted commas like she would have suggested.

Thanks for all that I got a job offer, 16 hours which is about what I can cope with of other people so that's taken the pressure off and pretty much guaranteed me the time to finish getting my book right But I much prefer your idea for the longer term so I'm thinking of doing an 'edit your own book' course through Writer's Workshop, it's online and I had my review from them for the book I'm near finishing the rewrite of (I hope) I'll have a think about it for book 2 because you basically start the course when you've finished the first draft and then spend six weeks ripping your infant novel to shreds.

I'll put off the selling on Folksy (it's like Etsy) until book 1 is at that horrible stage where it's first 50 pages go off into oblivion (agents) Then I'll be delighted to have a distraction and I won't care that I'm left with 30 badly made pairs of knitted earrings on my hands

I have never seen knitted earrings! Are they knots or drop earrings? I put some of my badly made cross-stitch designs on Etsy last month... big shock, none have sold! I can’t sit still without something to keep me busy, so I stitch.

Congrats on the job! I love hearing good news! What will you be doing?

I have to check out Folksy, it sounds like a neat place. I love anyplace that offers platforms for writers to reach audiences. Heck, I admire the fanfic sites! You may want to check over each agent’s preferences about works already in the public eye. I remember that some agents won’t touch anything already out in public, while others specifically look for finished works that have already picked up a following.

I’m one of the rare few who prefer revising over writing rough drafts. I hate starting out on a new book! It feels like such an uphill slog to me, especially the first 20k words. I keep them really short and choppy, just 50-70k of basic plot/dialogue, then I flesh them up to full size over the next couple versions. I do better when I have something on paper to work from.

Which do you prefer, long writing binges or a little bit at a time?

Off topic, I’ve really enjoyed our discussions. You seem like a very intelligent, interesting person.

veggie farmer

I'm enjoying talking to someone with similar interests too
The Folksy site is for the knitted earrings not for books. I am looking down the trad route because my novel is 1920 murder mystery with a male leed. I feel older people will be too significant a part of my readership to go the ebook way, though an ebook as well would be great. I can always reconsider.

I like to plan, I like to write random as inspired sections, then I strugle to get that into a first draft mostly because I do too much rewriting as I go. But what I hate is when I've finished and find I've underwritten both in words and sub-plot and have to work out how to add sub-plots without turning novel into a mess. That painful bit is now over and I'm doing the rewrite so that it makes sense with the changes I hope.

I'll be a shop assistant it's ok, at 16 hours it won't be too much for me, and it's afternoons, I write best in the mornings so really I've got the best thing that I stood any chance of getting.

There really aren’t many good jobs out there. I’ve had enjoyable shop jobs - one in a shoe store that got only two/three customers a day. Lots of writing time, but unfortunately, I was on commission! I’ll be doing sales next year when I have enough eggs/veggies growing to open a market stand. I’m not looking forward to the people interactions.

I was really surprised when I learned most of my readers are older. I get the feeling the younger generations don’t read long-form works as often as older generations. I started out looking for an agent, but honestly I got freaked out by contacting strangers, so I wussed and went with the anonymity of Zon. Maybe someday I’ll work up the guts to try again with a new release. You’re braver than me, I think.

I have the opposite problem with sub-plots - mine reproduce like bunnies. I try to run just A, B, and C plots, but I tend to create little side things that I forget until I’m going back through on an edit. I never know for sure how a book will end until I’m done, so I don’t write outlines. I try to keep detailed notes in the beginning of the rough draft file, but I don’t always update that so I still get befuddled. I always find writing the last few chapters stressful, because I have to dig back through and make sure I’ve tied up all the loose ends I started.

This is social interaction at a level I quite like and can cope with.

I do know my plot from the beginning (the murder plot) but there are lots of surprises for me as I go along. There's a lot that gets changed too. Basically I have to have a plan and then I keep changing it. What genre is your work in? How many words do you usually finish at?

Fluffy, they have this TV show, called "Murdoch Mysteries," that takes place in Toronto, Canada during the early 20th century. I wonder if you'd be interested in that show.

I will keep an eye out for it. I haven't seen it, but I don't have a telly so that might be why. I'm a huge Dorothy L. Sayers fan and Agatha Christie's were the first adult books I read (I went straight there after The Famous Five's).

My book is set Feb 1920 which made the research a lot harder than if I'd set it a few years latter (mid 20's) but I got there in the end. I'm glad I didn't see the problem before I wrote my first draft. I knew a bit about the time but I hadn't done masses of research or bought the books, because I did that before when I was writing a series set just after the Napoleonic Wars, but decided half way through actually writing book one that while I liked everything else, the hero was boring. I love history so some of the books I would have bought anyway, but some (such as on Regency furniture) I wouldn't have. This time I was more prudent, I've found photography to be really helpful in this. With the research I've also followed my own interests so I (my hero) notices the architecture more than ladies fashions.

What made you set the novel in February, 1920?

It needed to be after the war but not too long after. I can't say more about the timing without giving the plot away

Yeah, that'd be perfect. Never having to deal with people face to face and no commute is just what I want.

I would say that February, 1920, was about the time when cars became more common than horses and buggies on the streets of London (and New York). If one made a film set in that time, I find it would be possibly hard to accurately depict how the traffic looked. One might put too many horses and buggies; another might put too many cars.

The demise of the horse and buggy was pretty rapid in urban areas in the 1920s. By 1929, there was hardly a horse and buggy to be find on the streets of New York City.

Were there no rag and bone men left in the US when you were a kid? I can just remember ours, but you have longer distances. Horses were still used here for milk and bear (in a dray) till well after WWII because they knew where they were going so the driver could just walk from house to house and the horse would just go along the road slowly.

I went to the farmer’s market today and got worn out just walking around!

The surprises are part of the fun, aren’t they I love when the characters take over and I’m just along for the ride. My area is science fiction. I’ve done dimension travel, time travel, alien invasions.. this new one involves flying saucers. I’m excited this current book at least starts out on Earth (Washington DC in the late ‘90s) so I don’t have to invent all the details of every location. The last book wore me out after creating a whole alien culture. I’ll stick with real places for a little while longer. I’m learning all sorts of fun facts as I go, the US Capital is a fascinating building.

On Zon, the bare minimum for a full-length novel is 70k words. I usually come in around 100 - 110k. I can tend to be wordy - I wrote a multi-chapter fanfic that hit 35k. It was such a great experience!

Here’s a fun fact: the longest written work in English is a fan fiction written about, of all things, a Mario Brothers video game. When last I checked in, it had hit three million words and was still growing!

My characters take over too. My main one keeps insisting he's a Dickens fan, I'm going to have to read Dickens .

Making a new world must have been fun, what kind of look does it have?

I remember the 90's.